Sort by IMDb Rating - Highest Rated Movies and TV Shows With Robert Benchley
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1. Omnibus (1952–1961)
55 min | Drama, History, Music
Omnibus was a television program that sought to provide the best of what television could provide as the highest common denominator of intellectual curiosity and interest. This level of programing excellence has not been achieved again.
Stars: Alistair Cooke, Leonard Bernstein, Joseph N. Welch, Helen Hayes
Votes: 218
2. Robert Benchley and the Knights of the Algonquin (1998 Video)
87 min | Comedy
Compilation of 9 uncut one-reelers featuring American humorists Robert Benchley (2 from 1928, 4 from the 1940s), Donald Ogden Stewart (2 from 1929) and Alexander Woollcott (1 from 1945).
Stars: Robert Benchley, Donald Ogden Stewart, Alexander Woollcott
Votes: 24
3. How to Break 90 at Croquet (1935)
Approved | 15 min | Short, Comedy, Sport
Robert Benchley shows how to successfully play croquet.
Director: Leigh Jason | Star: Robert Benchley
Votes: 9
4. Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Passed | 120 min | Action, Romance, Thriller
On the eve of World War II, a young American reporter tries to expose enemy agents in London.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders
Votes: 23,747 | Gross: $3.48M
5. The Major and the Minor (1942)
Passed | 100 min | Comedy, Romance
A frustrated city girl disguises herself as a youngster in order to get a cheaper train ticket home. But little "Sue Sue" finds herself in a whole heap of grown-up trouble when she hides out in a compartment with a handsome Major.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Rita Johnson, Robert Benchley
Votes: 7,650 | Gross: $6.38M
6. The Gay Divorcee (1934)
Approved | 107 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A woman thinks a flirting man is the co-respondent her lawyer has hired to expedite her divorce.
Director: Mark Sandrich | Stars: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Alice Brady, Edward Everett Horton
Votes: 8,647
7. Snafu (1945)
Approved | 85 min | Comedy, Romance, War
A 14-year-old boy lies about his age and enlists in the United State Marine Corps without his family's consent or knowledge. He is sent into battle in the Pacific war-zone, decorated, and ... See full summary »
Director: Jack Moss | Stars: Robert Benchley, Barbara Jo Allen, Conrad Janis, Nanette Parks
Votes: 23
8. How to Take a Vacation (1941)
Not Rated | 10 min | Comedy, Short
A vacation in a desolate mountain cabin with friends is not as enjoyable as it would seem.
Director: Leslie M. Roush | Stars: Robert Benchley, Ruth Lee
Votes: 49
9. The Treasurer's Report (1928)
10 min | Comedy, Short
Assistant Treasurer Benchley reports on the annual expenditures of the club for its home for "boys between the ages of 14", and other projects.
Director: Thomas Chalmers | Star: Robert Benchley
Votes: 65
10. I Married a Witch (1942)
Passed | 77 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
A beautiful 17th-century witch returns to life to plague politician Wallace Wooley, descendant of her persecutor.
Director: René Clair | Stars: Fredric March, Veronica Lake, Robert Benchley, Susan Hayward
Votes: 9,538 | Gross: $0.31M
11. Road to Utopia (1945)
Passed | 90 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
Two vaudeville flops pose as bad guys and join the Klondike gold rush with a saloon singer.
Director: Hal Walker | Stars: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Hillary Brooke
Votes: 3,753
12. The American Venus (1926)
Passed | 80 min | Comedy
Mary Gray, whose father manufactures cold cream, is engaged to sappy Horace Niles, the son of Hugo Niles, the elder Gray's most competitive rival in the cosmetics business. Chip Armstrong, ... See full summary »
Director: Frank Tuttle | Stars: Esther Ralston, Lawrence Gray, Ford Sterling, Fay Lanphier
Votes: 54
13. Your Technocracy and Mine (1933)
10 min | Comedy, Short
Robert Benchley explains Technocracy with visual aids in his classic befuddled manor.
Star: Robert Benchley
Votes: 11
14. The Forgotten Man (1941)
Not Rated | 10 min | Comedy, Short
The trials and tribulations of the underappreciated father-of-the-bride are outlined.
Director: Leslie M. Roush | Stars: Robert Benchley, Ruth Lee, Norman Lloyd, Marjorie Lord
Votes: 35
15. Show-Business at War (1943)
17 min | Documentary, Short
A multi-studio effort to show the newsreel audience the progress of the Hollywood war effort.
Director: Louis De Rochemont | Stars: Carole Lombard, Walt Disney, John Ford, Darryl F. Zanuck
Votes: 388
16. The Man's Angle (1942)
Not Rated | 9 min | Comedy, Short
Via the experiences of Mr. Doakes, Mr. Benchley now explains to us how men experience the downside of some women.
Director: Leslie M. Roush | Stars: Robert Benchley, Ruth Lee
Votes: 37
17. The Witness (1942)
Not Rated | 9 min | Short, Comedy
With committees arising like weeds to investigate anyone for anything, Mr. Doakes fantasizes how he would handle his inquisitors if ever summoned as the subject of a hearing.
Director: Leslie M. Roush | Stars: Robert Benchley, Ruth Lee
Votes: 31
18. Flesh and Fantasy (1943)
Approved | 94 min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
An anthology of three loosely connected occult tales, with ironic and romantic twists.
Director: Julien Duvivier | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Charles Boyer, Barbara Stanwyck, Betty Field
Votes: 1,154
19. China Seas (1935)
Passed | 87 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
When earthy Dolly Portland is rejected by Captain Gaskell in favor of a socialite, she aids Jamesy McCardle, in league with Malay pirates, in his plot to seize Gaskell's ship.
Director: Tay Garnett | Stars: Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone
Votes: 2,948
20. Social Register (1934)
Passed | 71 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
Chorus-girl Patsy Shaw crashes a high-society party and meets playboy Charlie Breen; they fall in love and are soon on their merry way to wedded bliss. However, Charlie's snobbish mother ... See full summary »
Director: Marshall Neilan | Stars: Colleen Moore, Charles Winninger, Pauline Frederick, Alexander Kirkland
Votes: 65
21. Screen Snapshots Series 19, No. 9: Sports in Hollywood (1940)
10 min | Documentary, Short
Hollywood favorites both participate in, and watch, a variety of popular sports.
Director: Ralph Staub | Stars: Ken Murray, Richard Arlen, Mischa Auer, Robert Benchley
Votes: 57
22. Dancing Lady (1933)
Passed | 92 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
An attractive dancer is rescued from jail by a rich man who helps her to have her first big opportunity at a musical play on Broadway.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard | Stars: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone, May Robson
Votes: 2,665
23. Take a Letter, Darling (1942)
Passed | 92 min | Comedy, Romance
A struggling painter takes a job as a secretary to a female advertising executive. While working to obtain an account from a tobacco company, they end up falling in love.
Director: Mitchell Leisen | Stars: Rosalind Russell, Fred MacMurray, Macdonald Carey, Constance Moore
Votes: 605
24. The Reluctant Dragon (I) (1941)
Approved | 74 min | Animation, Comedy, Family
Humorist Robert Benchley learns about the animation process at Walt Disney Studios while trying to find the great man himself to pitch him the idea of making a cartoon about a shy dragon.
Directors: Alfred L. Werker, Hamilton Luske, Jack Cutting, Ub Iwerks, Jack Kinney | Stars: Robert Benchley, Frances Gifford, Buddy Pepper, Nana Bryant
Votes: 3,822 | Gross: $0.87M
25. You'll Never Get Rich (1941)
Passed | 88 min | Comedy, Romance
In order to cover up his philandering ways, a married Broadway producer sets one of his dancers up on a date with a chorus girl for whom he had bought a gift, but the two dancers fall in love for real.
Director: Sidney Lanfield | Stars: Fred Astaire, Rita Hayworth, Robert Benchley, John Hubbard
Votes: 2,871
26. Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937)
Passed | 110 min | Musical, Romance
Steve Raleigh wants to produce a show on Broadway. He finds a backer, Herman Whipple and a leading lady, Sally Lee, however his wife Caroline Whipple forces Steve to use a known star, not a... See full summary »
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: Robert Taylor, Eleanor Powell, George Murphy, Binnie Barnes
Votes: 1,357
27. Piccadilly Jim (1936)
Not Rated | 95 min | Comedy, Romance
In London, an American street caricaturist falls in love with a young woman who suddenly disappears, prompting him to develop a comic strip based on a "From Rags to Riches" family, that he does not know is hers, causing her embarrassment.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard | Stars: Robert Montgomery, Frank Morgan, Madge Evans, Eric Blore
Votes: 448
28. Murder on a Honeymoon (1935)
Approved | 74 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
A schoolteacher and amateur sleuth suspects foul play when a fellow passenger on a sea-plane gets sick and dies.
Director: Lloyd Corrigan | Stars: Edna May Oliver, James Gleason, Lola Lane, George Meeker
Votes: 897
29. Bedtime Story (1941)
Passed | 85 min | Comedy, Romance
A playwright attempts to stop his wife from retiring so she can star in his next play.
Director: Alexander Hall | Stars: Fredric March, Loretta Young, Robert Benchley, Allyn Joslyn
Votes: 710
30. Hired Wife (1940)
Approved | 96 min | Comedy, Romance
CEO Stephen marries his secretary Kendal in name only, an arrangement made to protect his finances from an attempt at a hostile business takeover. Once the threat is neutralized, he asks Kendal for a divorce but she refuses.
Director: William A. Seiter | Stars: Rosalind Russell, Brian Aherne, Virginia Bruce, Robert Benchley
Votes: 461
31. Week-End at the Waldorf (1945)
Passed | 130 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
The misadventures of a group of diverse guests at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard | Stars: Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson
Votes: 1,342 | Gross: $9.51M
32. Rafter Romance (1933)
Passed | 73 min | Comedy, Romance
A man and a woman share an apartment on a shift basis, never seeing each other; she dislikes him until they actually meet.
Director: William A. Seiter | Stars: Ginger Rogers, Norman Foster, George Sidney, Robert Benchley
Votes: 888
33. Nice Girl? (1941)
Approved | 91 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
A young girl finds herself attracted to one of her father's business partners.
Director: William A. Seiter | Stars: Deanna Durbin, Franchot Tone, Walter Brennan, Robert Stack
Votes: 386
34. It's in the Bag! (1945)
Passed | 87 min | Comedy
The ringmaster of a flea circus inherits a fortune...if he can find which chair it's hidden in.
Director: Richard Wallace | Stars: Fred Allen, Jack Benny, Don Ameche, William Bendix
Votes: 633
35. A Social Celebrity (1926)
70 min | Comedy
Small-town barber Max Haber (Adolphe Menjou), is the pride of his father, Johann, who owns an antiquated barbershop. Max adores Kitty Laverne (Louise Brooks), the manicurist, who loves him ... See full summary »
Director: Malcolm St. Clair | Stars: Adolphe Menjou, Louise Brooks, Eleanor Lawson, Roger Davis
Votes: 25
36. How to Train a Dog (1936)
Approved | 8 min | Comedy, Short
After a new dog owner decides on which dog to buy at the pet store, this short soon becomes a lesson in how NOT to train a dog.
Director: Arthur Ripley | Star: Robert Benchley
Votes: 171
37. Keeping in Shape (1942)
Not Rated | 10 min | Comedy, Short
Joe Doakes humorously demonstrates the cornerstone components of staying in shape: adhering to a healthy diet, an exercise regimen, and conscientious dental hygiene.
Director: Leslie M. Roush | Stars: Robert Benchley, Ruth Lee
Votes: 34
38. Furnace Trouble (1929)
18 min | Comedy, Short
Director: James Parrott | Stars: Robert Benchley, Marguerite Churchill, Paul Nicholson, Ethel Wales
Votes: 12
39. Kiss and Tell (1945)
90 min | Comedy
15-year-old Corliss Archer and 17-year-old Mildred Pringle are best friends and get into some mischief together which causes their parents to fight over who is a bad influence on whom. ... See full summary »
Director: Richard Wallace | Stars: Shirley Temple, Jerome Courtland, Walter Abel, Katharine Alexander
Votes: 297
40. How to Read (1938)
Passed | 9 min | Comedy, Short
Humorist Robert Benchley offers a tongue-in-cheek lesson on how to avoid eye strain while reading.
Director: Roy Rowland | Stars: Robert Benchley, Barbara Bedford, Marie Blake, Hal K. Dawson
Votes: 134
41. How to Eat (1939)
Approved | 9 min | Comedy, Short
Benchley lectures on the problems that can adversely affect a person's digestion, such as experiencing certain emotions (anger, worry, love, fear) and snacking between meals.
Directors: Roy Rowland, Cal Dalton, Ben Hardaway | Stars: Robert Benchley, Ruth Lee, George Lessey, Forbes Murray
Votes: 150
42. David O. Selznick: 'Your New Producer' (1935)
25 min | Short, Biography, Comedy
Humorist Robert Benchley is shown at what appears to be the head table at a dinner honoring producer David O. Selznick. However, Mr. Selznick has not yet appeared. While they wait for him ... See full summary »
Star: Robert Benchley
Votes: 94
43. The Trouble with Husbands (1940)
Not Rated | 11 min | Comedy, Short
Lecturer Robert Benchley outlines some of the pet peeves that wives have with their husbands.
Director: Leslie M. Roush | Stars: Robert Benchley, Ruth Lee
Votes: 75
44. How to Start the Day (1937)
Approved | 10 min | Comedy, Short
Benchley tries his best to demonstrate the routine one should follow to start the day right.
Director: Roy Rowland | Stars: Robert Benchley, Ernie Alexander
Votes: 135
45. Three Girls About Town (1941)
Passed | 75 min | Adventure, Comedy, Crime
To save the reputation of the hotel where they are employed, sisters try to cover up a murder.
Director: Leigh Jason | Stars: Joan Blondell, John Howard, Binnie Barnes, Janet Blair
Votes: 354
46. The Stork Club (1945)
Passed | 98 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A hat-check girl at the Stork Club (Hutton) saves the life of a drowning man (Fitzgerald). A rich man, he decides to repay her by anonymously giving her a bank account, a luxury apartment ... See full summary »
Director: Hal Walker | Stars: Betty Hutton, Barry Fitzgerald, Don DeFore, Robert Benchley
Votes: 744
47. How to Figure Income Tax (1938)
Approved | 9 min | Comedy, Short
As he is now working on his income tax, Joe Doakes conducts the latest in his series of "how to" lectures, this time on income tax. He provides a general overview on the theory behind the ... See full summary »
Director: Felix E. Feist | Star: Robert Benchley
Votes: 106
48. Home Movies (1940)
Approved | 8 min | Comedy, Short
Blunderer Robert Benchley is going to show some house guests the film he and his wife took on a vacation trip. He sets up the projector and the reel begins...and nothing good happens for Benchley from this point.
Director: Basil Wrangell | Stars: Robert Benchley, Monica Bannister, Marie Blake, John Butler
Votes: 126
49. Syncopation (1942)
Approved | 88 min | Comedy, History, Music
Covering a quarter-century of American 'syncopated" music (Ragtime, Jazz, Swing, Blues, Boogie Woogie) from prior to WWI through prohibition, the stock market crash, the depression and the ... See full summary »
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Adolphe Menjou, George Bancroft, Todd Duncan, Connee Boswell
Votes: 331
50. The Sky's the Limit (I) (1943)
Approved | 89 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Fred Atwell sneaks away from his famous squadron's personal appearance tour and goes incognito for several days off.
Director: Edward H. Griffith | Stars: Fred Astaire, Joan Leslie, Robert Benchley, Robert Ryan
Votes: 1,221